Study Reveals Breakthrough Discovery: How Cancer Outsmarts the Immune System
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Research into immunotherapy against cancer typically focuses on better recognition of cancer cells by the body's own immune system.
Researchers at Amsterdam UMC and Moffitt Cancer Center have investigated how cancer affects the energy management of a patient’s T cells and showed for the first time that contact with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) cells leads to a serious energy crisis in these cells. These findings are published in Cellular & Molecular Immunology.
CLL is the most common type of leukaemia in the Western world and mainly affects the elderly. Despite new therapies, the disease remains incurable, and treatments are becoming increasingly expensive.
"Our research revealed two things to us: firstly, that healthy T cells greatly increase their absorption of cholesterol and fats after they have identified their targets. Without this fuel, they are unable to proliferate. Secondly, and crucially, that this doesn't happen when T cells come into close contact with leukemia cells,” says Arnon Kater, professor of Translational Haematology at Amsterdam UMC.
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